~ Researching Russell Co, Kentucky

Monthly Archives: July 2010

I recently decided to re-examine a military pension file that I have for Andrew J. Stephens. His pension packet is relatively small – only 8 pages. When I ordered it, I was hoping to find that this was my GGG-grandfather, but instead found that this was another Andrew who had married my GG-Grandmother, Victoria Coffey. I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out who the parents of this “other” Andrew Stephens were, but I can find no family with an Andrew Stephens of the correct age.

When I read the file, I was disappointed to see that “other” Andrew had deserted from one regiment to join another. His file indicated that he was home on a 48 hour furlough and his regiment received orders to move on before his furlough was over, therefore, he joined another regiment.

I noticed that in my file, I had 2 versions of the Index Card for Andrew – one from Ancestry and one from Footnote. The cards were different and the Footnote card had a note on the bottom to see the file for Elias Smith – who was the first husband of Victoria Coffey. The 2 different cards made me wonder if there was information on Footnote that wasn’t on Ancestry. When I was comparing the available files on each site, I discovered that there were 2 listings on Ancestry for Andrew J. Stephens. At first, I attributed this to Andrew being in 2 different regiments, but then I realized that the enlistment dates were so close together – one in July and one in August – and that pushed me to look a little further.

The first thing I realized was that both listings were for the 13th Kentucky Cav, but one was Company C and the other was Company G. This caught my attention because in the pension file, Andrew had deserted from Co. G of the 19th Kentucky Infantry. What?? Infantry? More confusion! Could I find records for THIS information? One man was 24 years old and joined in Pulaski Co and the other was 19 years old and joined in Adair Co. Footnote has SOME pension files scanned and put on their site, but no records for either Andrew yet. So what could I find? What I found was another index card for Andrew J. Stephens that shows he was in Co. G of the 19th Kentucky Infantry AND Co. G of the 13th Kentucky Cav. And the certificate number on this card was different from the pension file that I have.

While I couldn’t find the pension file online, I COULD find the service records, so I spent alot of time downloading every card for Andrew Stephens from all 3 units. As I read the cards, I noticed that there was a card for the Co. C 13th KY Cav Andrew that stated that “The notations of February 28, 1887 and March 2, 1894, are canceled for the reason that this man is not identical with the Andrew J. Stephens who deserted from Company G, 19 Kentucky Infantry.” INTERESTING! This is the man who I DO have the pension file for. Why wouldn’t that be included in his file? And who is the other man? In my mind, I’ve been thinking that these might end up being the same way after all, but when I line up the dates on the cards, the men would have had to have been in 2 places at once, so they are definitely 2 different men.

What else can I glean from these card?. I’m hopeful, but not very confident that “Co G” Andrew is “my” Andrew. But his cards have a date of death at the bottom that says June 27, 1928. My Andrew died in 1920, but his wife Lucy died 14 June, 1928. Could the given date of death be the date of HER death? There is no indication that a Widow’s pension was requested, only an invalid pension, so would there be a reason to have HER date of death? I wish I knew more about these records! If this isn’t “my” Andrew, who is it? ANOTHER Andrew???

Here’s a brief summary of what I know from the cards (I can’t get this to line up on the page like I want…)

My first inclination is to ORDER THE FILE NOW! But I can’t afford that right now. So come on Footnote! Scan those files! I have found the pension file for Welcome Stephens who had “my” Andrew J. Stephens (Welcome’s uncle) and his wife, Lucy, as the witnesses to prove the birth dates for Welcome’s children, so I feel like the records for my area of Kentucky are just sitting on a desk waiting to be scanned any day now! It can’t be soon enough!

Last time, I talked about how I was going to start comparing “others” who are mentioned in my ancestors’ records. Specifically, the names that are mentioned in deed records. Those names appear in the part of the deed that I tend to glance over without really reading because the handwriting is difficult to read and what could I possible gain from knowing that there was a black oak tree on the corner of Joe Smith’s property?

So I decided to make a form for my Genealogy Planner. It isn’t anything complicated, anyone could make it. I just created a table in Word and then added my ivy design on the top, but I thought I’d put it here on anyway for anyone who might want it. To add more rows, put your cursor on any cell in the bottom row and then click on “insert above” in the “Layout” tab.

As I’ve been working on putting my chart together, I did decide that it would be good to inlcude “others” from all types of records on the same form. So I’ll be including neighbors in census records and witnesses on marriage documents or guardianship records. Perhaps I could also include people listed who made purchases at estate sales, but that could be quite a list, so I’m not sure. At the very least, I could use my chart to see if those people are more likely to be neighbors instead of family. It’s a work in progress! And I have noticed that although I’ve been focusing so strongly on getting correct citations into my database and group sheets, I have not been NEARLY as diligent on labeling the actual pages in my files! I’ve been looking at deed records where I made sure to include the page number in the copy, but no where did I write down which deed book the record came from. When will I learn??

I’ve been reading my latest issue of Family Tree magazine and I was very interested to see an article called “Finding Mr. Right” on how to single out YOUR ancestor when there are several people with the same name in the area. As you know, I have William Stephens coming out of my ears in my family line! And that name certainly isn’t the only mega-popular name in the Russell County area, so I was interested to see what they had to say. It was a very informative article and many of the things that they discussed are things that I already do, but one area that I have been VERY poor in doing is to pay attention to the witnesses and neighbors that are mentioned in all of the records that I collect.

They had a great chart (I see Excel!!) on page 45 that I plan to start working on, but in a nutshell, they were taking land deeds for a couple of men with the same name and making note of the date, seller, buyer, neighbors, witnesses and other info gleaned from the document. By looking at the names of the neighbors and witnesses, you’d probably start to see other familiar names that would help you single out which man is the man you’re look for. Brilliant! When I saw the column with the neighbors, I immediately thought about how that list could compare with neighbors in the census records. Wouldn’t I be seeing these same names in the census pages around my ancestor? Or how about bondsmen and sureties in other records? And what could I find if I began to research THOSE names? Perhaps I’d be finding husbands of daughters or sisters that have blank boxes in my group sheets. (You KNOW how I hate blank boxes in my forms!)

So I think I’m going to create another sheet for my Genealogy Planner so I can have this information with me and anytime I’m looking at a new set of records, to think about looking for these names as well. Maybe I’ll get it ready to be posted by Wednesday, if I can just keep focused and not run off on some tangent when I pull out those deeds!

This morning, I had a couple of free hours before taking a trip to my mother’s where I’ll have no internet access. Well, that’s not exactly true. She has dial up access, which means waiting quite a while for pages to load. But I digress…

I didn’t want to get out a bunch of binders or anything so I decided that I would do some “cold call” type of research. I went to the Kentucky Digital Library and decided to search their copies of the Adair County News for any articles with the name “Stephens” in them. As I was clicking through the options, I came across a marriage listing for Laura Ellen (Bennett) George and Uriah Stephens.

Laura Ellen was the sister of my great-grandfather and Uriah was the brother of my greatgreat-grandmother. I’ve always found this marriage to be interesting as it was one of multiple times that my great-grandfather and great-grandmother’s ancestral lines intersected. Now I’ll have an exact date and the name of a minister that I can research. Perhaps I’ll be able to find some church records!

I’m often surprised by the things that I find when I “surf” a site without looking for a specific record. If I choose a site and just look for a surname, or even for a county, it’s not unusual to find something unexpected!

I love the “thrill of the hunt”. Looking at a timeline and thinking, “I wonder if they….” and then looking for the record. Finding new names in birth records and the “AHA!” of finding a connection in a probate record.

What I DON’T love is entering the data in my genealogy program! To be more specific, entering the source citations. I love seeing a “solid” group sheet print out – you know, a group sheet with little missing information. Rarely am I thrilled to see how long my citations list is! It SHOULD give me a feeling of accomplishment – a pat on the back for a job well done. But for some reason, it just doesn’t. I look at that list and feel weary knowing the work that went into it!

But NOW, I have a new “picture” to look at and to have a goal of seeing no blank spaces without flooding me with memories of typing in the information it took to get there.

I recently switched from FTM to RootsMagic 4 for 1 simple reason. The CHORE of entering citations in FTM was a nightmare for me! To figure out which category of citation would eventually trickle down to the correct format for what I was holding in my hand was torture – so I just didn’t do it! I find RootsMagic much easier to use for the citations – thank you RootsMagic team!

But you know what motivates me more than anything? Check marks. That’s right, check marks! When I double click a person’s name, I see a screen with a timeline of events that I’ve entered into the database along with 3 columns for check marks. 1 column tells me if I’ve added a note for that event. (No check marks there yet, but they’ll be coming) 1 column tells me if I have a source entered and the last column tells me if I’ve uploaded a media file for that event.

Talk about motivation! As soon as I see empty boxes in those columns, I’m on the search. Where did I find that? Have I scanned it yet? If it came from the internet, do I have the address? If the web site still exists, have a taken a screen shot of the information (along with any introductory information) in case the site disappears some day? If I can’t find a record, then where did I get that information? Time to start looking for confirmation!

And how long can I make this list? I see important dates that are missing as well as sources that are missing very easily. Much better than THINKING my database is complete when there’s actually a stack of papers somewhere with information that needs to be added.

For me, this is not work, this is completing a list – and being the type A personality that I am, that’s all I need to get me off my duff and into my files!

Yesterday, I read a post from Randy Seaver at Geneamusings in which he talked about cleaning up his database. I have had a hard time getting back into the swing of research after my “nothing but school work” period, so I thought that cleaning up my database would be a good idea too. I was amazed at the number of times people were entered twice (I know that has something to do with my merging gedcoms, so I’m not blaming the program) and I learned alot about how to take care of those duplications (after a bit of hair pulling, I must admit!) But I also got into a very methodical method of going through the branches to look for the duplications and while I was working on an individual, I’ve also been updating those sources and media files. I love it!

If you’re like me and you’ll make a “to do” list just so you can mark off a task you’ve just completed, then you’d love this too!